South Africa's successful football World Cup confounded sceptics who had been doubtful of the country's logistical and security capabilities. But a move announced on 12 December by a group of influential South Africans to bid for the 2012 Mr Gay World final is even bolder.

At a time when non-heterosexual lifestyles are under intense fire in African countries, a successful bid by South Africa would give the pageant a political spin it has never enjoyed before.

In many African countries, anti-gay sentiment is rising, and the overall trend appears to be a hardening of legislation against lesbians, gay men, transgender people and bisexuals. Their lifestyles are already, in different ways, listed as criminal in 37 countries.

The launch of a bill in Uganda last year that proposed the death penalty for repeated same-sex relationships opened the field for homophobic outbursts there, including a campaign of "outing'' by one Kampala newspaper, Rolling Stone, of more than a dozen suspected lesbians and gay men. The campaign was eventually halted in November by a judge.

In Malawi, two men who staged a partnership ceremony in December 2009 were jailed for 14 years before being pardoned in April after pressure from European and American aid donors.

The prime ministers of Zimbabwe and Kenya, where moves to table new constitutions have dominated the political scene this year, have seen fit to denounce homosexuality as part of their attempts to position themselves favourably with socially conservative groups.

In Senegal, a 95-page report published by Human Rights Watch last month includes interviews with dozens of people who have faced violence and threats at the hands of police and others. HRW decided to carry out the survey after a 2008 "outing'' campaign by gossip magazine Icone. Gay men's graves have been desecrated and in December 2008 nine gay Aids activists were jailed for eight years, though they were later released.

HRW refers to Senegalese homophobia as "institutionalised'', pointing out that the Muslim country's law criminalising consensual same-sex relationships invites abuse against non-heterosexuals and jars with the country's constitution.

South Africa, where the end of apartheid in 1994 led to the creation of a constitution that recognises same-sex partnerships and condemns discrimination, seems to be backtracking on gay rights. A number of homophobic attacks have made headlines, including the township practice of "corrective'' gang rape of lesbians. The evangelical Family Policy Institute is currently running a vociferous campaign against the city of Cape Town for promoting itself as a gay-friendly holiday destination.

At the UN general assembly human rights committee this autumn, the South African government supported a move by socially conservative Muslim countries, such as Morocco and Mali, to remove the words "sexual orientation'' as grounds for protecting people from arbitrary executions.

The current African trend of repression against gays and lesbians is part and parcel of the anti-imperialistic rhetoric adopted by many politicians – such as Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, who sees them as "worse than dogs and pigs'' – to justify their own hold on power.

In cases where jailed or persecuted gay men and lesbians have been let off the hook – such as Malawi's pardoned gay grooms or in Uganda where the death penalty bill has been quietly dropped by President Yoweri Museveni – it is invariably as a result of western diplomatic pressure.

But on a continent with few prominent gay men or lesbians, western denunciation of discrimination in Africa gives grist to gay-bashing anti-imperialists. Giles Muhame, editor of the Ugandan Rolling Stone, claims gay men and lesbians exaggerate their plight to get more funding from western human rights groups and for visas to travel to Europe and the US. "The world is under siege by homosexuals. They want to control the world and they are starting with Africa,'' he said.

The current Mr Gay World is South African Charl van den Berg. Coenie Kukkuk, a Pretoria lawyer who is the director of South Africa's bid to host Mr Gay World 2012, said: "The event is not a modelling competition. Charl is a gay role model who gives courage to gays all over Africa and shows them their lives are about more than repression, torture, HIV and prison sentences. That message will be enhanced if we can elect the 2012 Mr Gay World on African soil, where the vast majority of governments are anti-gay and are currently hardening their repressive laws.''

The 2012 host country will be announced on 13 March at the 2011 finals in the Philippines.